Solar radiation directly incident on any object increases the steady state temperature of the object. When solar radiation is incident on a device such as a phone, music player, a laptop, a tablet computer or the like, there is potential for the internal electronics and enclosure of the device to increase in temperature. Taking a device out in the sun will make a device hot. Heat caused by solar radiation is in addition to the internal heat created by use of the device. An increase in enclosure temperature for these types of devices may potentially result in damage to the device, user discomfort and/or in the worst cases injury to the user. To prevent or limit the negative effects of solar radiation on a device, the device may be throttled and/or shutdown in response to increasing temperatures and/or once the temperature exceeds allowable limits. Generally, to maintain user satisfaction with the device, the time to shutdown/throttling may to be as high as possible. As such, reducing the amount of solar radiation transmitted through a display may provide an improved user experience and improve the utility of the device.
Reducing the radiation transmitted through a display is very challenging. Limiting the radiation transmitted into the display may have the negative effect of limiting transmission of images created by the device to the user. For example, one solution to the problem has been to utilize numerous layers (e.g. in some applications 25 plus layers) of filters, each one configured to block specific wavelengths of problematic radiation. However, not only is this approach cost intensive but it also degrades the viewable image on the device.